Glasgow Warriors: Brandon Thomson backed to bounce back after penalty miss

Glasgow will take time to weigh up their stand-off options before naming their team for Friday’s second installment of the 1872 Cup at Scotstoun.

Glasgow's Brandon Thomson misses a first half penalty against Edinburgh at BT Murrayfield. Picture: Paul Devlin/SNS

The Warriors suffered a narrow 10-7 defeat in the first leg against Edinburgh at BT Murrayfield on Saturday when a first-half penalty miss from Brandon Thomson proved costly.

The fly-half, making his first start of the season, failed to find the target from a fairly central position. The miss followed one in the last seconds of the game against Dragons last month when Thomson, on as a replacement, squandered a chance to win the game by striking his conversion attempt wide from in front of the posts. Glasgow ended up losing by a single point.

With first-choice stand-off Adam Hastings still injured, Glasgow will assess the fitness of Pete Horne who missed the Edinburgh game with concussion. A third option at 10 is the youngster Ross Thompson who impressed during a short cameo from the bench at Murrayfield on what was his Glasgow debut.

“Pete Horne trained on Tuesday,” reported Kenny Murray, the Warriors assistant coach. “He is returning from his HIA [head injury assessment]. We will see how he goes.

“He did a fair bit in training so we’ll have to wait and see what he is like. Obviously, with head injuries anything like a headache you need to be careful with.

“We were happy with Ross. When he came on he did well. He could possibly be in contention for the game as well this weekend.”

Murray said Brandon Thomson’s morale remained good despite his penalty miss.

“He is generally a positive guy,” said the coach. “He always has a smile on his face. He knows himself you can’t be missing kicks like that at the level we play at. There's no point trying to kid anyone about that. At the end of the day he’s got to be better there and he knows it.

“The guys will help to pick him back up. We don’t want guys in the team getting down on themselves. We need everyone in a good state of mind.”

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